Opinion
No. 14-09-00022-CR
Memorandum Opinion filed January 29, 2009. DO NOT PUBLISH — TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
On Appeal from the 185th District Court, Harris County, Texas, Trial Court Cause No. 1132232.
Panel consists of Chief Justice HEDGES and Justices ANDERSON and SEYMORE.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant entered a guilty plea, without an agreed recommendation on punishment, to aggravated kidnapping. On October 10, 2008, the trial court sentenced appellant to confinement for fifty years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. No timely motion for new trial was filed. Appellant's notice of appeal was not filed until December 24, 2008. A defendant's notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days after sentence is imposed when the defendant has not filed a motion for new trial. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(1). A notice of appeal that complies with the requirements of Rule 26 is essential to vest the court of appeals with jurisdiction. Slaton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 210 (Tex.Crim.App. 1998). If an appeal is not timely perfected, a court of appeals does not obtain jurisdiction to address the merits of the appeal. Id. Under those circumstances it can take no action other than to dismiss the appeal. Id. Accordingly, the appeal is ordered dismissed.